Palin makes last-minute trip for Ward

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is traveling to Idaho Friday to campaign for Republican congressional candidate Vaughn Ward, a leading challenger to Democratic Rep. Walt Minnick who was one of the first House challengers Palin endorsed this cycle.

Ward, who's competing with state Rep. Raul Labrador in next Tuesday's Republican House primary, will rally with Palin at the Qwest Arena in Boise Friday morning. The price of admission is $10 per ticket, with photos with Palin going for $1,000 apiece.

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Mike Tracy, a spokesman for Ward, called the scheduling of the event a coup for his candidate.

"This has been in the planning stages for a while, and the timing is beautiful with four days before the primary," Tracy said. "Love her or hate her, the media covers her a lot. And there's tremendous excitement – her visit is the lead story everywhere on every newscast in the state."

Palin's visit could help Ward drum up enthusiasm for his candidacy after a long stretch of embarrassing missteps. Most recently, Ward, a former Nevada coordinator for John McCain's presidential campaign, has faced allegations of plagiarism on his website and questions over his failure to vote in the 2008 general election.

Ward's received support from other members of the Palin family, too: both Palin's father, Chuck Heath, and father-in-law, Jim Palin, have campaigned for him.